Technical issues caused delays yesterday but I have added on to the Holyoke Comics pantheon for this superhero-obsessed society.
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MORE HEROES ADDED FOR THE HOLYOKE PANTHEON
Filed under Superheroes
HOLYOKE SUPERHERO PANTHEON
This has become a superhero-crazed culture. Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at the superhero rosters of now-defunct comic book companies have been so popular I decided to examine the heroes and heroines of Holyoke Comics.
Any of us could stick a drawing pencil up our butt and draw a better picture.
DOCTOR DIAMOND
Secret Identity: Drake Gorden, MD
Origin: While on a passenger ship in the South Seas Dr Drake Gorden was swept overboard during a typhoon. He washed ashore on an uncharted island inhabited only by a monk formerly from Tibet. The monk decreed Doctor Gorden to be worthy of the Egyptian black diamond he guarded. That jewel bestowed super-powers on Gorden, who returned to the U.S. and fought crime as Doctor Diamond.
First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics # 1 (May 1941). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1942.
Powers: The black jewel granted Doctor Diamond the strength of fifty men and an impressive degree of invulnerability.
Comment: This hero’s foes included Najar the android and the mad scientist Doctor Borcia. Doctor Diamond is one of those Golden Age superheroes who had potential but whose career was tantalizingly short. In my opinion heroes with actual super-powers are preferable to that period’s endless array of ordinary people who simply donned a costume and fought crime.
KITTEN
Secret Identity: Katie Conn
Origin: When she was eleven years old Katie’s parents died in a train accident. She was taken in by her criminally-minded uncle who trained her in acrobatics, unarmed combat and cat-burglary. By age twelve the girl was an expert thief until Cat-Man (Holyoke’s most famous original superhero) nabbed Katie’s nefarious uncle and adopted her. (And you thought Batman’s relationship with Robin was questionable.)
The strong-willed girl donned a costume of her own and – calling herself Kitten – was determined to fight crime as Cat-Man’s sidekick. The superhero tried to dissuade Katie but her independence and streetwise nature made that impossible. Deciding she was safer working at his side he accepted her as his partner.
First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics # 1 (May 1941). Her final Golden Age appearance came in 1946.
Powers: Unlike Cat-Man, Kitten had no super-powers. However, she was more agile than an Olympic gymnast and was in peak condition for a female her age. In addition her cat-burglary skills and street-fighting abilities made her a very capable superheroine. In a few stories her gloves were clawed.
Comment: Kitten often teamed up in separate adventures with Mickey Matthews, the boy sidekick of the Holyoke superhero called the Deacon. The pair fought criminals and Nazi supervillains as the Little Leaders. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 12th
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POINT UNIVERSITY CONQUERS THE NCAA – Once again a team from the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) toppled a team from a higher division. In this case the POINT UNIVERSITY SKYHAWKS took it on the road against NCAA Division Two’s BENEDICT COLLEGE TIGERS. The Skyhawks won handily in a 22-7 statement game.
NUMBER ONE GETS UPSET AT HOME – The 16th ranked JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY BLUE STREAKS paid a visit to the number 1 UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT UNION PURPLE RAIDERS yesterday. A 13-0 1st Quarter lead for the Blue Streaks became a 13-7 advantage by Halftime and a 21-13 lead for the Purple Raiders to end the 3rd. JCU came from behind to eke out a 31-28 victory. Continue reading
Filed under college football
THE VISITOR (1979)
THE VISITOR (1979) – This Italian-made movie deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following so I’m surprised that it’s still com-paratively unknown. The film is directed by “Michael J Paradise” (Giulio Paradisi) and features appearances by such name stars as Franco Nero, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, Shelley Winters, John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Mel Ferrer.
Paradisi directs this film in such a way that the actual point of most scenes is lost because virtually every shot includes extraneous footage completely irrelevant to the storyline. The extra footage just distracts from what otherwise might have been a halfway passable sci-fi thriller.
Never before has anyone used the words “This movie could have used more Kareem Abdul- Jabbar” but they apply to this flick.
All that being said I want to point out that I disagree with the general consensus that The Visitor makes no sense. Sure, it has plotholes, inconsistent behavior from the characters, poorly chosen reaction shots and villains who over-complicate things for themselves, but the basic story DOES make sense. In fact I bet X-Files fans would like it and would immediately understand what’s going on.
Part of the confusion can be attributed to the edited version that omits so much footage that it’s difficult to understand what is going on. It’s not always easy to understand what’s going on in the complete 108 minute version, either, but at least it retains all the relevant footage. Since so many people seem lost when they first watch this movie I’ll provide a handy synopsis of the film. It’s not quite right to say there are spoilers ahead since most people apparently don’t understand what is going on when they watch the film anyway. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
SEVEN AMERICAN FLYING ACES OF WORLD WAR ONE
Eugene Bullard
For my final Veterans Day post I’ll do another shoutout to the Flying Aces of World War One. The movie Flyboys is a good fictional film about their mystique (but based on the real-life Lafayette Escadrille).
EUGENE BULLARD – This African-American boxer from Columbus, GA served in the French Foreign Legion as early as the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and had already won a Croix de Guerre before joining the legendary Lafayette Escadrille on a bet.(!) He qualified but the prejudiced Frenchman Dr Edmund Le Gros rejected him for service.
Bullard instead flew a Spad 7 with French Escadrille 93. Eugene still had an uphill fight against prejudice and the French supposedly failed to credit him with all of his kills, limiting him to just 2 in the official records but tradition credits Bullard with between 5 and 9. He had what may be the best nickname outside of the Red Baron and was called the Black Swallow of Death. On the side of his plane he painted the words “ALL blood runs red” in reference to the bigotry he had faced. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
G-8: A WORLD WAR ONE PULP HERO FOR VETERANS DAY
For a light-hearted Veterans Day post how about a Balladeer’s Blog shoutout to the fictional American World War One pilot code-named G8.
THE HERO: G-8 was the codename of an American flying ace of World War One. The character was created by Robert J Hogan in 1933 and over the next 11 years Hogan wrote 110 stories featuring the daring figure. G-8, whose real name was never revealed, was a master of disguise in addition to his piloting and hand-to-hand combat skills.
Hogan’s hero (see what I did there) was unswervingly patriotic and fiercely dedicated to the defeat of the Central Powers.
THE STORIES: With his two fellow operatives “The Battle Aces” G-8 conducted aerial commando raids, carried out special forces missions and even undertook espionage missions against the Germans, Austro-Hungarians and the Ottoman Muslim Turks. In true Pulp Story fashion the Central Powers threw a vast array of mad scientists, monstrous creatures and alien super-science against our heroes, who always prevailed in the end. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
TOP DEITIES IN AINU MYTHS
The Ainu people of Japan suffered oppression at the hands of the Japanese which was similar to that suffered by various conquered peoples around the world at the hands of the Western World, Russia, China and the Muslim World.
The Ainu migrated south to the Japanese islands from the northern lands of the Inuit. Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will recognize the similarities between the Ainu and Inuit belief systems and methods of worship. In addition certain linguistic similarities will be noted between the Ainu and the Japanese. The Shinto “kami” becomes the Ainu “kamui”, to cite the most prominent example.
As with the Inuit, exact names and aspects of the following deities can vary, with the most pronounced differences being in Saghalien.
- NOTE: I am still working out my entry on the Ainu bear god. If you know the Ainu then you know that that entry alone may double the size of this article. And as always, anyone curious about my source books can just ask.
RUKORO – The Ainu god of the male privy. No, I’m not kidding. The powerful stench from his domain serves the useful purpose of fending off evil spirits. Because of his association with evacuation and expulsion of things unclean he is regarded as a powerful exorcist. There is no corresponding goddess of the female privy, owing to primitive taboos about menstruation.
CHUP – The sun god of the Ainu. His wife is Tombe, the moon goddess. Ainu homes orient their sacred window toward the east to greet the rising sun. Until recent decades it was customary to salute the sun upon exposure to its rays, similar to the practice of genuflecting to the center of an altar, but done without kneeling.
It was considered disrespectful to bodily cross the rays of sunlight striking the hearth through the sacred window. It was better to wait until the position of the sun changed. An inau, one of the idols or totems of the Ainu people, would be set up to honor the sun. That inau bears an incised outline of the orb of the sun and during rituals libations and praise are offered up to Chup. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
TWO MORE AMERICAN ACES FROM WORLD WAR ONE
With Veterans Day approaching here’s another look at some neglected World War One history.
ARTHUR R.”RAY” BROOKS – Captain Ray Brooks graduated from MIT in 1917 and immediately volunteered to serve in the World War that the U.S. had just entered. Brooks got his first 3 kills with the 139th Squadron and 6 more after transferring to the 22nd Aero Squadron. FOUR of Captain Brooks’ kills came in one dogfight as he tackled a squadron of 8 Fokker planes single-handedly. Seriously.
In addition to those kills Ray Brooks had 4 more probables and went on to win the Distinguished Service Cross. He was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor but was not confirmed for it, unfortunately. Brooks flew a Smith IV Spad XIII. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 5th
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CLOSE CALLS FOR A PAIR OF NUMBER TWOS – In D2 the 2nd ranked GRAND VALLEY STATE LAKERS needed Double Overtime to put away their hosts the SAGINAW VALLEY STATE CARDINALS by a score of 62-56 ### And D3’s number 2 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS had to survive a 27-20 Overtime duel with the visiting UW-RIVER FALLS FALCONS.
NUMBER SIX FALLS IN A DEFENSIVE EPIC – Over in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) the BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS paid a visit to the number 6 team in the nation – the GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS. This text-book example of stellar gridiron defense ended in a 7-3 upset win for the Ravens. Continue reading
Filed under college football
